Marketing, Operations & Your Litigation Practice

In today’s competitive legal environment, litigation frequency is gradually, but persistently decreasing and technology is completely redefining competitive advantage in both marketing and operations. As a result, litigation firms that lack the foresight to adapt will inevitably be forced out of the marketplace by organizations with more innovative and aggressive business practices.

While competent legal representation leading to favorable outcomes remains the key benchmark upon which litigation firms are measured by their clients, organizations of all types are finding innovative ways to reduce costs, and to increase profits by improving the return on their promotional initiatives. Once firms have ensured that they have the legal talent necessary to succeed, they must turn their attention toward two key areas of opportunity for competitive differentiation: operations and marketing.

Most firms today are completely inundated with the requirements of running a legal practice and often fail to dedicate sufficient time and resources on building the appropriate business infrastructure to ensure sustained growth and competitive advantage. Many such firms have grown through considerable reliance on quality of relationships of one or more partners. This overreliance on the brand of a particular individual poses multiple potential threats, or opportunities, depending on one’s perspective.

First, when the markets face recession like conditions, price sensitivity is heightened. This is a major opportunity for efficient organizations to capture market share from competitors by either offering a comparable offering at a better fees, or offering additional value through enhanced technological capabilities.

Next, there is considerable risk that the departure or loss of a key firm member can have considerable potential impact on firm revenue. By establishing greater brand equity in the firm itself, an organization may partially insulate itself from such a threat. Large and prominent corporate firms such as a Skadden Arps, or a Wachtell Lipton, Rosen & Katz, often recruit lawyers from other firms, or even merge in entire departments. The strength and prominence of their brands allow new firm members to benefit from the overall reputation of the firms.

Now, these firms did not build their brands overnight. They established them over decades and decades of quality representation and continual commitment to excellence. The good news is that today’s market is much more dynamic and competitive and your business can achieve much more in a far quicker time by implementing cutting edge marketing and operational strategies.

As a smaller firm, you may not have the same firepower (read capital), but thinking about your processes like the big firms do will keep you one step ahead in the game. Here is a partial checklist you may want to go through in your mind as you consider how your firm stacks up against the competition in the areas of marketing and operations:

Marketing

• How do you highlight your firm’s successes to existing clients and/or prospects?
• What do your regular client touch points look like, outside the ordinary course of handling your case?
• How do you measure the overall financial return on your marketing expenditures?
• If you deal with repeat client business (plaintiff’s firms typically excluded), what is the lifetime value that the average client brings to your firm?
• How much does it cost you to bring that client in?
• Do you have a process for capturing information for and following up with business leads (Web site visitors, inbound calls, RFPs, event participants, exhibit booth traffic, random leads)
• What steps have you taken to provide your staff with better sales and client service skills?
• Do you have a cost-effective marketing process for continually staying in front of your key prospects until they are in a position to contact you?
• How are you leveraging new technological capabilities in your marketing efforts? Online surveys? Electronic newsletters? Social media focusing on your areas of expertise?

Operations

• Is there a more cost-effective solution to handling your firm’s redundant tasks?
• Does your technological infrastructure maximize staff efficiency and provide management and clients with transparent data?
• How do you handle temporary surges in labor requirements caused by considerable case loads?
• Is your firm able to perform around the clock?
• Do you have clearly defined roles and responsibilities and processes in place

Tip: The most successful businesses focus on their core competencies and seek out assistance in areas outside the scope of their expertise. If you are a law firm, practicing law is yours. Remember, putting a plasma tv in your office is an expense. Spending capital on cost reduction initiatives, or on improving client acquisition and retention is an investment.

Now for the shameless self-promotion... LitigatorEdge will help you take your business to the next level by improving your firm's operational and marketing performance. Contact me at jzissu1-litigation@yahoo.com if you would like to discuss your needs further.